Why Did Star Trek Beyond Edit Out Sulu's First Gay Kiss?

Earlier this month, John Cho revealed that his character Hikaru Sulu will be gay in the upcoming Star Trek Beyond. Though writer Simon Pegg meant for the reveal to be a nod to George Takei, the openly gay actor who played Sulu in the original series thought the change was "unfortunate."

"I'm delighted that there's a gay character," he said. "Unfortunately, it's a twisting of Gene [Roddenberry]'s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it's really unfortunate."

My primary concern was that I was wondering how George [Takei] would feel, because he's a gay actor that played a straight part and crafted a straight character. I didn't want him to feel that we had reduced him to his sexuality by sort of borrowing this bit, if you will, from his life. You know? And his opinion was important to me, and I would have rather had him support the decision than not, so I wanted to reach out to him. I was concerned also that there might be Asian-American backlash. There has been this feminization of Asian men, so I thought this might be seen as continuing that lineage, which I disagree with personally, but I brought it up. I was also concerned, scientifically speaking [laughs], that we're in an alternate universe but I'm assuming that Sulu is the same genetic Sulu in both timelines, and I thought we might be implying that sexual orientation was a choice. Does this sound super overthought?

Cho said Takei's reaction was the same as his Facebook post after the news came out. When discussing the idea to make Sulu gay with the writers, Cho said he mostly pushed for the character to have an Asian partner. But when the writer asks Cho if he and his on-screen partner (played by Doug Jung) had an intimate scene, he says, "There was a kiss that I think is not there anymore."

It wasn't like a make-out session. We're at the airport with our daughter. It was a welcome-home kiss. I'm actually proud of that scene, because it was pretty tough. Obviously, I just met the kid, and then Doug is not an actor. I just wanted that to look convincingly intimate. We're two straight guys and had to get to a very loving, intimate place. It was hard to do on the fly. We had to open up. It came off well, in my view.